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Lancer (Timeline B)
"Lancer" is the name for two distinctly different weapons. The first was designed during the late 50s, and was essentially a more powerful turbolaser. The second was designed in 4128 and, without the use of blaster gas, creates a beam of energy that travels at nearly the speed of light. It is the second version this article focuses on. Operation The lancer focuses energy into a coherent beam, rather than exciting blaster gas. The result is a weapon more powerful, more accurate, and longer-ranged than a turbolaser at the cost of having a poorer rate of fire. Lancers are nonetheless considered somewhat superior to turbolasers. During the Confederacy-Republic War 4128-4130, lancers allowed the small but efficient Fourth Republic to engage the generally larger frontline vessels of the CIUS on equal terms. The damage done by lancers is the effect of applying energy directly to the matter the enemy is composed of. When the beam impacts its target, the target's particles become extremely excited, to the point that the particle can no longer hold itself together. Molecules split into atoms, and atoms split even further. The result of both breaking chemical bonds and splitting atoms is a release of radiation, mostly in the form of either thermal energy or visible red light. This tends to coincide with the utter disintegration of the target, lending lancers considerable psychological effect. The lancer's beam is held together magnetically, leading to several of the weapon's more unusual properties. The first, and best-known, is that lancer beams bend around similarly-magnetic lightsaber blades. Jedi attempting to deflect lancers would find themselves decidedly short-lived. History Lancers were originally developed in 4128 by a small company on Cato Nemoidia. However, the Republic somehow discovered the Nemoidians' new weapon and offered to purchase the exclusive use of the weapon for a considerable sum. The Nemoidians accepted the offer, and ever since the Cato Nemoidia Weapons Pioneering Coporation has supplied the weapons to only the Republic, as per contract. Lancers were quickly fitted onto the mostly-outdated Republic ships in an attempt to brace for impending war with the CIUS. When the Third Empire was absorbed into the Republic, the newer Imperial ships were all refitted with lancers as well. The use of lancers provided a badly-needed offensive punch to the Republic fleet when war did break out, and it was lancers that held off the top-of-the-line CIUS fleet at the Battle of New Alderaan. When the RAS Pegasus ''was completed in 4129, she became the first vessel in the galaxy built from the ground up with lancers as primary weapons. Several months later, [[Aurora Class Cruiser (Timeline B)|RAS ''Aurora]] followed suit. Starting in 4128 ABY, various lancer sniper rifles and man-portable anti-vehicle weapons were built. The technology quickly advanced, however, allowing for significantly smaller weapons to be developed by 4130. The result was the pulse-lancer pistol, rapidly becoming standard-issue with the Republic Navy's officer corps. On the ground, pulse-lancers are quick, easy to aim, powerful, and do not need to be reloaded. However, they suffer from a poor rate of fire, and lack the versatility of the combined bullet and energy bolt of the Republic's standard EPS weapons. Man-portable lancers are also unreliable, unlike their shipboard counterparts, suffering from frequent malfunctions and being highly susceptible to physical impact. Pulse-Lancers The [[Constellation Class Frigate (Timeline B)|RAS Constellation]]'' is equipped with pulse-lancers, a variant of the lancer that fires not beams of energy, but instead packets of energy. This design is somewhat less accurate, but it allows for greater efficiency and as a result more significantly more powerful blasts. In late 4130, less than a year after the end of the Confederacy-Republic War, the CIUS developed a new weapon for its ships. This weapon was for all practical purposes an equal to the lancer. This was a problem, however; Republic ships are smaller than CIUS ones and have fewer weapons. The Republic's lancers balanced out the greater number of CIUS weapons in battles, but the weapons upgrade, though not enough to turn the tide in a war, put the Republic at a disadvantage ship-for-ship. Desperate to find some way to counter this, especially given the possibility that the CIUS could use its new weapons to overwhelm border patrols and storm into Republic territory, the Navy's best and brightest met to create some strategy. In the end, it was Colonel Malkovich who proposed modifying all Republic Navy lancers into more powerful pulse-lancers. The RAS ''Aurora was the first ship to recieve the refit, and the rest of the fleet is rapidly being brought back to spacedock as well. Category:Fourth Republic Category:Timeline B Category:Out-of-date Article